LOS ANGELES — The Kern River is swollen with so much runoff from the epic Sierra Nevada snowpack that state water officials have decided to open a rarely used relief valve, diverting floodwaters into the California Aqueduct to be used as drinking water in Southern California.
Opening this flow relief valve, known as the Kern River Intertie, is intended to prevent floodwaters from reaching Tulare Lake, which in recent weeks has reemerged, replenished by powerful winter storms and now heavy spring runoff. In the early 20th century, the lake was systematically drained and channeled, allowing farmers to transform this arid swath of the San Joaquin Valley into a center of industrial agriculture.
Now, the phantom lake’s reappearance has swallowed thousands of acres of farmland and is encroaching on low-lying towns such as Corcoran.
